The present invention refers to a transfer device in a press, for the stepwise transport of workpieces through processing stations of a tool, comprising transport bars which are disposed laterally with respect to the tool and which are provided with grippers for gripping workpieces and are capable of being reciprocated in the longitudinal and the transversal directions in a cyclic movement. In each working cycle, said transport bars perform a closed rectangular movement by advancing a number of seized workpieces to the following station of the tool in a first step, then being laterally retired from said tool, longitudinally returned, and moved towards said tool again in order to seize the workpieces. In the process, considerable accelerations and decelerations and correspondingly high forces of inertia result, so that the working cadence of said press is limited by the rigidity and the stability of said transfer device. Relatively narrow limits are thus set since any increase of the rigidity and of the mechanical deformation stability of the transport bars leads to an increase of weight which in turn results in an increase of the forces of inertia.
In order to ensure a disturbance-free transfer of the workpieces, an additional vertical movement is superimposed on the above-mentioned horizontal transfer movement, the transport bars and the grippers being lifted up a small distance each time after having seized the workpieces in order to allow a safe entry of the seized workpieces into the following station of the tool. Without this vertical movement, there is a risk that workpieces might collide with parts of the following station when entering the same. This additional vertical movement of the transport bars involves considerable costs as well as an increase of the inert mass.